-Republicans have concocted an elaborate fantasy about a conspiracy deep within the FBI to destroy Donald Trump, and that imagined conspiracy is coming to a head with the imminent release of a secret GOP memo. For more on this, it’s time for “A Closer Look.” ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] Amid a looming showdown with his own FBI director and members of Congress, Trump met today with Republicans in West Virginia. He began by listing off Republicans in attendance, but watch as he reads Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn’s name, then forgets he read it, and then complains that they forgot to include it. -Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn. John, thank you. Great job. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. Again, Steve, thank you. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Kevin. Chair John Thune, and House Conference Chair, Cathy McMorris Rodgers. [ Applause ] Did they forget your name, John? I don’t know. What’s going on here? John Cornyn. Everybody knows. They didn’t put his name up, but that’s okay. That’s the first time that’s ever happened.
-Do you mean that’s the first time that’s never happened? You just said his name. Do you not remember? You looked right at him. Makes sense Trump has the memory of a goldfish since he also has the mouth of one. [ Laughter and applause ] This is starting to feel like the last season of a long-running TV show where the writers decide to have the main character fall off a horse and get amnesia.
[ As Trump ] “Hi. I’m Donald.” [ Normal voice ] “Hi, Donald. I’m John.” [ As Trump ] “Who’s Donald?!” [ Laughter ] [ Normal voice ] Trump, of course, was there to crow about his State of the Union address and bask in the adoration of his fellow Republicans. Trump even suggested that after a slow first few months in office, he’s gone above and beyond what he promised voters on the campaign trail. -I was there four months — you know this, Paul — and they were saying, “He didn’t fulfill a promise.” But now, we’ve fulfilled far more promises than we promised.
[ Laughter ] And they’re having a hard time with that. We have seriously fulfilled promises. I call it “promises plus.” [ Laughter ] -He refers to his accomplishments like they’re choices at a gas station. [ As Trump ] “We have promises, promises plus, and promises unleaded. Just don’t get them near a match!” Of course, while — [ Cheers and applause ] While he was giving that speech, Trump probably had the ongoing Russia investigation on his mind. Now, we don’t know if Trump will ever agree to sit down with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, but if he does, Mueller is likely to ask him about his repeated attempts to interfere with the investigation. Just to name a few, he demanded a loyalty oath from FBI director James Comey.
Then when he fired Comey, he asked Comey’s temporary successor Andrew McCabe who he voted for. And then yesterday, we learned that he also tried to ask Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who directly oversees Mueller in the Russia investigation, if Rosenstein was on Trump’s side. -CNN is breaking right now news about a meeting in December between President Trump and the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — the Justice Department official supervising the Mueller probe.
-The president asked Rosenstein where he thought the investigation of links between Russians and his campaign was headed, and he went on to ask whether Rosenstein was “on my team.” -Oh, my God. Trump is so obvious. If you met Trump on Tinder and messaged him hello, his first reply would be, “What size bed do you have?” [ Laughter ] On top of that, we also learned yesterday that Mueller is reportedly investigating the White House’s shifting explanation for that infamous Trump Tower meeting Don Jr. had with the Russians during the 2016 campaign. As you might recall, the Trump team originally said Don Jr. and the Russians… Topic that is, of course, close to Don Jr.’s heart since his brother was adopted from…Transylvania? [ Laughter ] I think. But then, e-mails later surfaced in which it was revealed that the meeting was explicitly about getting dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russians. The Times reported that Trump and his communications director Hope Hicks knew about the e-mails, but that Hicks said the e-mails…
Amazing. So, not only did the e-mails get out, the comment about how the e-mails would never get out got out. This administration is so incompetent, they cover their tracks with bigger tracks. [ Laughter ] [ Cheers and applause ] And yet… as more evidence comes out about Trump’s attempts to obstruct justice, Republicans in Congress are becoming more aggressive in protecting him. Today, the White House reportedly approved the release of a secret, classified memo written by House Republicans alleging wrongdoing by the FBI in its investigation into the Trump campaign.
The Washington Post reported today that Trump has… But even Trump’s own handpicked FBI director Christopher Wray has… Nonetheless, the White House seems to be moving forward. Vice President Mike Pence told Politico… [ Chuckling ] Oh, really, Mike Pence? You’ve always believed in the public’s right to know? In that case, will you release Trump’s tax returns? Okay. Wait. Will you release the White House visitor logs? Okay, no, no. I’ll give you another chance. Will you release all of the Russia-related e-mails? [ Cheers and applause ] Will you release Eric? [ Laughter ] So, what does this memo actually say? Well, The New York Times reported this week that in reality, the memo shows that Trump’s own justice department approved an extension of a warrant to surveil a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser named Carter Page.
So, just how suspicious is Carter Page? I’ll let Carter Page answer that. -Were you in e-mail chains with Papadopoulos? -Probably a few, yeah. -Were you in e-mail chains with him about Russia? -It may have come up from time to time. -Did you meet Sergey Kislyak in Cleveland? Did you talk to him? -I’m not gonna deny that I talked with him. -So you did talk to him? -I will say that I never met him anywhere outside of Cleveland. Let’s just say that much. -The only time that you met him was in Cleveland? -I may have met him possibly. It might have been in Cleveland. [ Laughter ] -Look at how happy he is with how guilty he looks! Carter page looks at Chris Hayes the way your Golden Retriever looks at you after he’s torn your couch to pieces.
“Hey! You’re home! Look what I did! Come on! It’s really cool! I crapped in your shoes, too! Come on!” There’s a very clear through line here from the initial fall statement about the Trump Tower meeting to the secret GOP memo. At every turn, the Trump team has sought to conceal the truth and interfere with an investigation to get at the truth. Mike Pence, don’t you guys have any shame? Oh, yeah. All right. This has been “A Closer Look.” [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪.
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